Considering the Yankees are currently sitting six games above .500, the question in the title of this post seems rather silly. Until you take a closer look, that is.

After sweeping a hapless Oakland team and taking two of three from the Angels in L.A., the Bombers were just swept by the Red Sox, who outscored their hated rivals 25-13 in the process. Joe Girardi’s club has now lost seven in a row to Boston and is just 1-8 in the season series.

Adding insult to injury, it appears as though reliever Joba Chamberlain could need Tommy John reconstructive surgery after he was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his throwing elbow. The injury is a major blow to the club, as Chamberlain heads to the DL with a 2.83 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. He had stabilized one of the biggest issues for the Bombers, who have struggled getting to Mariano Rivera in the ninth.

If Rafael Soriano (elbow) could ever get healthy and pull his head firmly out of his rear end, then the loss of Chamberlain could be slightly mitigated. But the $35 million offseason acquisition has been nothing shy of disastrous thus far in the Bronx, so relaying on Soriano at this point isn’t prudent.

Of course, the Yankees can pick their poison in terms of what their biggest weaknesses is right now: their bullpen or their starting rotation. For the most part, Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon have pitched beyond expectations. Teams with as much offensive firepower as the Yankees have will certainly take Garcia’s 3.86 ERA and Colon’s mark of 3.39.

But at some point, A.J. Burnett will have to step up. He’s 6-4 on the year but his ERA is north of 4.30 and worst of all, he remains inconsistent. One start the Yanks are getting seven innings out of him and the next he’s done in five. Assuming Colon and Garcia have at least one bad stretch coming up between them, the Bombers need a more consistent effort out of Burnett. (It would have also been nice if CC Sabathia could have stopped the bleeding with a win over Boston on Thursday night but alas, not even the big fella could save this club right now.)

The other more subtle issue that seems to be growing more problematic by the day is Girardi himself. His moves lately are baffling and just in terms of managing his pitching staff, it seems as if he either leaves his starters in too long or overuses his bullpen. It’s like there’s no middle ground with Girardi and you have to wonder when his players will start losing confidence in him – if they haven’t already, that is.

The good news for the Yankees is that the American League doesn’t look as strong as it has in recent years. The Red Sox are the class of the division and the league, but the Indians have figured out that they’re the Indians, the Tigers are inconsistent and the Rangers look a lot less scary than they did a year ago. It’s not inconceivable that an 88 or 89-win Yankees team could make the postseason as a Wild Card and hope to get hot at the right time. After all, they’re still third in runs scored, first in home runs and second in slugging percentage and OPS. In other words, their offense can certainly carry them all season.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a major dark cloud that is presently hovering over this club and it’ll be interesting to see what the front office has in store if things continue to get worse.

Now that Andy Pettitte has decided to retire, the general consensuses is that the Yankees’ are screwed when it comes to their starting rotation. But that’s probably an overreaction.

Assuming he doesn’t get injured or suffer a case of bad luck, CC Sabathia is still the best pitcher in the American League. If he can stay healthy, Phil Hughes is a solid No. 3 on a championship team and even has the talent to be a good No. 2. Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Ivan Nova and Sergio Mitre are the unknowns, but the Yankees don’t need any of those guys to be Cliff Lee or even Pettitte. They could do much worse for their No. 4 and No. 5 starters.

But with Pettitte retiring, the Bombers do need the 2009 version of A.J. Burnett to return and not the puss that took the mound in 2010. It’s not like the guy can’t pitch; he helped the Yankees win the World Series in ’09 by finishing with a 4.04 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. But those numbers rose in 2010 when he went 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA and 1.51 WHIP.

The key with Burnett has always been his mindset. If he’s healthy and his head is in the right place, then the Yankees’ rotation will be fine with Sabathia, Burnett and Hughes rounding out the top 3 spots. But if Burnett’s confidence starts to go, then so does his stuff and the wheels can come off rather quickly.

Pitching in New York and the small dimensions at Yankee Stadium don’t help his cause either. Pitchers can’t get away with mistakes at Yankee Stadium like they can at Petco Park or AT&T. Leave one up to a lefty in the Bronx and the ball is likely to wind up in some fan’s office the next morning.

But the early reports on Burnett have been good. He’s working with pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who says Burnett has a new approach that should yield better results. He also thinks that Burnett’s “mind and heart are in the right place,” and that he wants to do well.

For the Yankees’ sake, hopefully Rothschild is right. Losing Pettitte to retirement could be a minor blip or a catastrophe depending on Burnett.

Things don’t look good in the Bronx.

A.J. Burnett retired the fist six batters he faced Tuesday night, but then remembered he was A.J. Burnett pitching in 2010 and the wheels started to fall off. The end result was disastrous, which is what most pundits figured when Joe Girardi appointed him his Game 4 starter.

Burnett allowed five runs on six hits in six innings of work as the Rangers crushed the Yankees 10-3 in Game 4 of the ALCS. Texas’ catcher Bengie Molina (a great midseason pickup from the Giants) went 3-for-4 with a go-ahead three run homer in the sixth off Burnett, while the eventual ALCS MVP Josh Hamilton also hit a pair of dingers and Nelson Cruz added a two-run shot in the ninth.

Compounding issues for the Yankees is that Mark Teixeira is now done for the season with a strain in his right hamstring. Twenty-three-year-old Eduardo Nunez hit .280 this year in 50 at bats with one home run, but he’s not going to keep pitchers awake at night like Teixeira will.

The Bombers face elimination this afternoon at 4:00PM ET. The good news is that they have their ace on the hill; the bad news is that CC Sabathia has a 7.20 ERA in this year’s postseason. C.J. Wilson will start for the Rangers and his ERA is a tad better (2.03), plus he flustered New York hitters for most of Game 1 before they got to him in the 7th inning. And even if the Rangers lose today, they’ll be at home for the final two games of the series and Cliff Lee (who’s pretty good in the postseason) would start Game 7 if necessary.

The Red Sox have proved this decade that being down 3-1 doesn’t mean a club can’t pull off a comeback. But the Yankees look old, tired and dare I say completely overmatched in this series. They look finished.

The Yankees may have accomplished their goal of stealing a game in Texas, but their work has just begun.

Game 3 is Monday night in the Bronx and the Rangers will throw Cliff Lee, who is 6-0 with a 1.52 ERA in the postseason. And if you think he gets freaked out pitching at Yankee Stadium – think again. His lone playoff start in New York came in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series when he threw a complete game, yielding just one run on six hits while striking out 10 and walking none.

If the Rangers can win tonight, their opponent in Game 4 is A.J. Burnett, who gets the nod because manager Joe Girardi doesn’t want to use CC Sabathia and then pitch youngster Phil Hughes on short rest. To say that Burnett has struggled this season is like saying that Brett Favre struggled getting a date with Jenn Sterger in New York. (What? You mean you got my text-o-junk and you still don’t want to go out with me? Your loss, lady.)

Girardi is sticking by the struggling Burnett and even went as far as to say, “We believe in A.J.” But the starter went 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP over 33 outings during the regular season this year and has shown no signs of turning things around.

With a win in Game 3, the Rangers could be setting themselves up to take the series. One day at a time, though – tonight is pivotal.

If A.J. Burnett’s simulated game on Wednesday is any indication of how he’ll pitch in the ALCS against the Rangers, then Texas is about to be spotted one game in the best-of-seven series.

In his simulation start yesterday, Burnett threw 80 pitches in four-plus innings and apparently threw the first pitch over Francisco Cervelli’s head. Later on, he hit Greg Golson and Austin Kearns.

This, of course, is coming from a guy that is tentatively scheduled to pitch Game 4 against the Rangers.

The Bombers signed Burnett to a five-year, $82.5 million contract last year and he repaid them by going 13-9 with a 4.04 ERA. But things haven’t been the same for him since he lasted just two innings against the Phillies in Game 5 of the World Series last year. In that outing, he allowed six runs on four hits and walked four batters in an 8-6 loss.

The defeat must have stuck with Burnett this year, because he posted a 10-15 record with a 5.26 ERA and is now the black sheep of the starting rotation. He was left off the ALDS roster, but Girardi wants to pitch him in Game 4 of the ALCS if Burnett can show he has the mental fortitude to handle such a big situation.

Right now, it doesn’t look like he can, which is a problem considering the ALCS kicks off in two days.

Some pitchers give up 1-2 home runs or more per game, while some of them are masters at keeping the ball in the park. We did a gopher ball list last year, so here is the opposite…the pitchers who give up the fewest home runs per nine innings, and therefore the guys you want in the game when the game is on the line:

1. Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees (0.4953)—Amazingly, Rivera gave up 11 home runs his rookie year (1995) and since then, only 50. That’s 50 home runs in like 15 years, or about 3 per season. That’s just sick. No wonder the guy has so many career saves (538).

2. Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves (0.7141)—If only Hudson was able to stay healthy for any length of time, he’d be a lock for the Hall of Fame.

3. Derek Lowe, Atlanta Braves (0.7221)—When you have a ball that drops like six feet before it reaches home plate, you’re not going to have a lot of hitters get under your pitches. What you’ll get are lots of ground balls.

4. Aaron Cook, Colorado Rockies (0.7384)—If you’re a pitcher in Colorado, it’s sort of like being a meatball sandwich in a pizza joint. You’ll get noticed, but only when they run out of pizza…or in this case, when the Rockies aren’t hitting. Still, when you think about Cook and how he’s spent his entire career in Denver, being fourth on this list is quite an accomplishment.

5. Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies (0.7385)—A perfect game only added to Halladay’s Hall of Fame resume.

6. Carlos Zambrano, Chicago Cubs (0.7445)—He’s always angry but always has nasty stuff, and, like Cook, he pitches in a hitter-friendly park.

7. Andy Pettitte, New York Yankees (0.7671)—Lucky for the Yankees, Pettitte’s career high of 27 home runs allowed was when he was with the Astros in 2006.

8. Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros (0.7729)—He has an impeccable nose for the strike zone, but puts enough on his pitches to keep hitters guessing and in the park.

9. Jake Westbrook, Cleveland Indians (0.7999)—He hasn’t pitched much in the last three years, but when he does, Jake Westbrook is very good at keeping the ball in the yard.

10. AJ Burnett, New York Yankees (0.8213)—As if the Yankees needed another guy like this in their rotation.

Source: Baseball Reference

The Phillies acquired Cliff Lee at the trade deadline this season to help bolster their starting pitching and help get the back to the World Series. But now that they’re back in the Fall Classic, the Phillies need one more thing from Lee: To save their season.

Lee will pitch Game 5 against the Yankees tonight in a do-or-die game for the Phillies, who trail 3-1 in the best of seven series. So far, Lee is 3-0 in the postseason and has only allowed two earned runs on 20 hits over 33.1 innings of work. He has also fanned 30 batters, has only walked three and has a sparklingly 0.54 ERA.

But even though he has been masterful so far, the problem is that this is the second time the Yankees will be facing Lee this week. Even though they lost, the Rockies fared a tad better against Lee in Game 4 of the NLDS than they did in Game 1. And Colorado doesn’t have near the offensive firepower as New York does.

If the Yankees are going to be crowned world champions tonight, the top of their order must come through, unlike in Game 1 of this series. Outside of Derek Jeter, who had three hits and scored a run, Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez combined to go 1-for-12 against Lee in their first outing. While A-Rod has been on fire since then, he looked lost in all four of his at bats against Lee in New York while striking out three times.

Time will tell if Lee can continue his dominance in the postseason, or if A.J. Burnett and the Yankees will put the final touches on their championship run.

The Yankees needed a strong outing from starter A.J. Burnett on Thursday, and that’s exactly what they got.

Burnett held the Phillies to one earned run over seven innings as the Yankees won Game 2 of the World Series, 3-1. Burnett attacked hitters with his fastball and his curve was nearly unhittable as he struck out nine and limited one of the best offenses in baseball to only one run. Closer Mariano Rivera didn’t allow a run in the eighth or ninth innings to earn his 38th career postseason save.

This win was huge for the Yankees on a couple levels. Not only did they tie the series, but they also don’t have to go to Philadelphia down 0-2. While the Phillies accomplished their goal of winning at least one game in New York, the momentum has swung in the Yankees’ favor and now they have confidence heading into Philadelphia.

Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel will get some heat for allowing Pedro Martinez to start the seventh inning (the Yankees wound up tacking on another run to go up 3-1 after Martinez allowed the first two batters to reach base), but Martinez wanted to go back out and Manuel showed confidence in his starter. If Martinez got through the seventh, Manuel would have been lauded for saving his bullpen and trusting Pedro to work through the inning. Instead, he’ll likely receive criticism for not going to his bullpen.

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